Four additional Pennsylvania counties are quarantined effective immediately because of the detection of Thousand Cankers Disease in Chester County. This restricts the movement of wood and wood products from Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties and other states known to have the disease. This is the second detection of Thousand Cankers Disease in the state. Bucks County was quarantined in 2011.

The disease was found in fields with black walnut trees in Franklin, London Britain, and Lower Oxford townships in Chester County. Samples were verified by the state and federal departments of agriculture. The quarantine restricts the movement of all walnut material including nursery stock, budwood, scionwood, green lumber and firewood. It also covers other walnut material living, dead, cut or fallen including stumps, roots, branches, mulch and composted and uncomposted chips. Due to the difficulty in distinguishing between species of hardwood firewood, all hardwood firewood is considered quarantined.

The quarantine also restricts the movement of walnut material and hardwood firewood from states known to have Thousand Cankers Disease including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Nuts, processed lumber and finished wood products without bark are exempt from the quarantine.

Non-compliance with the quarantine order could result in criminal penalties of up to 90 days imprisonment and a fine of up to $300 per violation, or a civil penalty of up to $20,000 per violation.